Steve Kerr acknowledges the Warriors’ grim reality as a ‘fading dynasty’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Steve Kerr on Wednesday acknowledged the obvious but unspoken truth within the Warriors.
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The golden days of yore are over. And they’re not coming back, because that’s not how the aging process works.
“We are no longer the ‘17 Warriors, dominating the league,” Kerr said. “We are a fading dynasty.
“We know that. Everybody knows that.”
The 2016-17 Warriors were an all-time great squad featuring four All-Stars: Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. That team posted a 67-15 record in the regular season and went 16-1 in the postseason.
Those Warriors took a 27-4 record into a Christmas Day game against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The current Warriors have been a middling bunch, with Curry as the only certain All-Star. Taking a 15-15 record into their Christmas Day game against the Dallas Mavericks, they’re aiming for a third consecutive victory – which would tie their longest streak of the season.
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Moreover, they’re two days removed from a win over the Orlando Magic that was blighted by a heated public squabble between Kerr and Green.
“We have issues, just like every other team has issues,” conceded Kerr, who said he and Green apologized to each other and that each apologized to the team. “But we have to work through them. And I believe that this was a major step in that happening. And I feel really good about where our team is on the floor, about where we’re heading. I see the potential to do exactly what we did last year, to really go on run and give ourselves a chance and where we are as a team, as an organization.
“The most important thing for me is for guys to recognize that there’s beauty in the struggle. There’s beauty in what we’re trying to accomplish right now.”
The Warriors have 52 games to pull themselves together and rise from eighth place in the Western Conference into at least the top six; they’re 3.5 games behind sixth-place Houston. Their preseason goal was to finish among the top four, and they are five games behind the fourth-place Lakers.
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“What is up to us? How do we carry ourselves, night to night? How connected are we? And can we give ourselves another swing at the plate?” Kerr said. “We did that last year. I was really proud of the team last year, despite the loss against Minnesota. (Without) the injury to Steph, who knows how far we would have gone?
“But we gave ourselves a chance, and that’s the goal here. We know where we are. We’ve got to know who we are. We got to know what’s possible, and we have to take pride in the struggle, because this is part of life.”
